Food and Life with a Punch of Flavor

Grilled Chicken Caesar Wraps with Mayo-Free Dressing

Ima not even tell you about my secret ingredient that makes this dressing super healthy yet. It will keep you on the edge of your seat/couch/bed/desk chair until I finally decide to drop the bomb of deliciousness that takes a usually mayonnaise and fat packed dressing and makes it good for your tum-tum. That’s right…the suspense is growing.

Meanwhile, since I’m withholding my dressing ingredient from you right now (don’t you dare cheat and scroll to the recipe!! Don’t you do it!!), we can talk about the rest of this wrap. First of all…who doesn’t love a good Caesar salad? It’s like…the salad for people who hate salad. There are no scary vegetables (mushrooms!! Blaarrggggg), no scary greens, and the dressing is kind of like ranch in the way that it’s just plain likable. The toppings consist of CHEESE and croutons…I mean, what’s not to like?

This recipe gives you every lovable element of Caesar salad, but in wrap form. It’s a salad wrap. A “Slap.” Oh my gosh…dibs. Copywriting that. I’ll open up a food truck called “Slap.” People will probably think I want to cause them physical harm at first, but eventually they will figure it out and I’ll become famous.

So because Caesar salad is super simple, we really have to make every ingredient awesome in order for the end result to be awesome. Which means a few different things…

Make your chicken awesome. In this recipe, we pound out the chicken using a meat tenderizer, quick marinate the chicken in lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a pretty hefty amount of garlic powder, and then grill it! Flava city.

Make your dressing awesome. NOPE. Not let. Later. We talk about that later. Feel the suspense continue to build.

Use fresh, crisp romaine lettuce.

Use actual, fresh Parmesan cheese. Take the pre-grated powder that comes in that plastic container and push it to the back of your fridge for now. You need fresh cheese for a perfect Caesar salad.

Once you toss all those ingredients together, stuff them inside a whole wheat tortilla, roll it up, and take a bite, your taste buds will be singing, and you’ll be thinking, “This is way too good to be as healthy as it is.”

Alright let’s talk about this dressing. The time has come.

Looks just like Caesar dressing right? It tastes just like it, too. But there is zero mayo – not even a little bit. The healthy substitute that we use here?

Cottage cheese.

Wait, wait, waaaiiitt. Just stay with me. If you hate cottage cheese, don’t worry bout it. You can’t taste any remnants of cottage cheese…just Caesar-salady-deliciousness. And guess what cottage cheese is?? SUPER healthy. Really, really good for you. So not only are we removing the unhealthy element of Caesar dressing, we are replacing said unhealthy mayo element with a super healthy ingredient. Healthy Caesar dressing? Yes. I’m a fan. I’m a fan for sure.

Because this healthified Caesar dressing is actually good for you, you can feel free to add as much as you want into your wrap. Slather it all over that lettuce and chicken. And don’t stop there…once you have your wrap all assembled, keep a little bowl of the dressing near by and dip. Dip like it’s your job.

Need a demonstration? I’m happy to oblige…

Aw, yeah.

So Seth and I are going to Cancun in late July as a “Welcome-home-from-deployment-slash-late-anniversary” trip. I might not have mentioned it on here before because it was SUPPOSED to be a big, huge, awesome surprise for Seth. I booked the whole thing without him knowing…the hotel, the flights, everything. It was all done. And he had zero idea.

Then one day, we were talking about potential plans for his leave time (which is when the secret trip was already planned), and I was saying that we need to get our passports renewed just in case we decide to plan a trip out of the country. Then he was like, “Oh, well even if we wanted to do that we can’t at this point because I didn’t request international leave.”

Cue my inner panic attack as I realized that I have potentially just spent a large sum of money on a trip that we might not be able to go on. So I had to tell him all about it and ruin my awesome surprise so that he could fix is leave paperwork.

So anyway, since he got home, we have been trying to get our DANG passports renewed. Oh. My. Gasssshhhhhhhhh it has been such a pain. We tried for like three days straight to get this done and something kept going wrong.

Day 1: Went to the library to print off the documents we need (we don’t have a printer. Why? Not sure, but we shall get one soon). Realized we forgot the check book and had to drive all the way home to get it. We live on a military base, so it’s a little more inconvenient and out of the way to go back and forth like this. Got back to the post office, parked outside to fill out documents. Realized we didn’t know our parents’ birth years. We knew the dates (don’t judge us), just not the years. Couldn’t get a hold of all four parents, so we had to quit for the day and go home.

Day 2: Figured out our parents’ birth years. Went back to the library to print out forms because we messed up like three things on the ones from the previous day. Sat at the library this time to fill them out instead of our car (it’s basically nine million degrees outside these days in Kansas), and proceeded to mess up several more times and reprint all twelve pages several more times. Printing stuff at the library isn’t free by the way. This day was actually hilarious because of how many times we messed up. For some reason, we felt so much pressure to fill out these documents correctly because they have to be perfect and if anything was messed up, there is a chance they would send it back, we wouldn’t get our passports back in time, and we couldn’t go on our trip. And for some reason, the pressure made us keep messing up ooooooovvveerr and over again. My particular favorite mess up was when Seth was writing in his mom’s first name (which is Rhonda), and instead wrote “Rhonnd.” He didn’t even realize it until later when he was looking back over it. I was seriously crying laughing. In the middle of the library. I’m surprised we weren’t asked to leave. Anyway, we FINALLY got the documents done correctly, drove the post office, and NOPE. Passport dude was gone for the day. We made an appointment for the next day and went home.

Day 3: This was today. We finally got it done and sent in, but it cost us a shameful amount of money because we need the passports expedited since our trip is in a little over a month.

Word to the wise: never plan an awesome vacation out of the country, because getting passports is CRAY CRAY. Just kidding…kind of. I’m sure the awesome vacations you plan will be worth it…maybe.

Pound your chicken breasts out using a meat tenderizer/mallet (this step is optional, but it makes your chicken tender and juicy and helps it cook faster)

Place your chicken breasts in a dish or large ziplock bag and add the juice of one lemon, your garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss until chicken is evenly coated in marinade, and set in the fridge until your dressing is done

For your dressing, add all ingredients (cottage cheese, lemon juice, Worcestershire, anchovy paste, ¼ cup parmesan, garlic clove, and water) to a blender along with some salt and pepper

Blend until smooth and totally combined - add more water if your dressing is too thick

Place your dressing in the fridge until ready to assemble

Remove your chicken from the marinade and grill until it is cooked through (you can do this inside using a grill pan and a bit of olive oil or outside using a traditional grill - both work just fine)

Chop your chicken into small cubes and set aside - you might want to let it cool a bit so it doesn't wilt your romaine

To assemble: in a large bowl, add your lettuce, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, chicken, and dressing to taste (I used about 1 cup of dressing - the recipe makes 1¾ cup, which leaves some left over for dipping)

Toss to combine and fill your tortillas with the mixture. Wrap it up and serve!

If you want to make this in advance and eat individual wraps throughout the week, do the following: mix your romaine and your ¼ cup of parmesan cheese and store that in a large bag. Cut your chicken up and store that in a tupperware. Store your dressing separately as well. When ready to make the individual wrap, add about ½ cup of the lettuce/cheese mixture and a heaping ⅓ cup of the chicken mixture into a bowl. Toss with about 2 tablespoons of dressing and add the dressed salad into a tortilla. The recipe will make 8 wraps if you generally follow those amounts

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Nutrition information counts for one whole wheat tortilla filled with 1/2 cup of romaine lettuce/parmesan mixture, 1/3 heaping cup chicken, 2 tablespoons of dressing mixed in with the filling along with an additional 1 1/2 tablespoons for dipping.

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

Great questions, Monique! I’m not totally sure about how long it keeps in the fridge (mine “mysteriously” disappears in a few days ?), but I would maybe guess a week or longer? You can absolutely make it a thicker consistency! The only thing you need to change is the amount of water. You will definitely need some or the dressing just won’t blend. I would start by adding a few tablespoons and blending, and then from there adding 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time until it is just thin enough to actually be blended, but thick enough to be a mayonnaise or dip-like consistency. Awesome idea to use it on sandwiches, by the way. Yum!

Thanks so much Annie! I will give it a go ? Trying to stay away from store bought mayonnaise so I love it when I can find something like this! Sometimes I use homemade houmous as well. Soooo good! And just saw your roasted garlic post! I always eat the garlic form roast dinners ? I never thought of using it as a spread! Wuuuutttttt! I love avocado on toast and now it just got even better!! You’re amazing! ❤️

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Annie Chesson
I am a passionate Christian, proud Army wife, cooking addict, and owner of the cutest German Shepherd/Lab in the whole world! Join me in my journey to create delicious, flavorful food. More About Me...